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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28704876">Finding Home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts'>FiresFromOurHearts</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Small Harry Potter Things [42]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Draco would so want to change it and fix it and make it better, Friendship, Gen, Home, Listen you can't tell me the Manor wasn't an awful place to be after the war, Make it home, Malfoy Manor (Harry Potter), Post-Canon, With friends things become easier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:53:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,322</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28704876</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco returns to the Malfoy Manor and finds it a dark, lonely place. His parents have moved country but he has remained, felt like he had to do so. But then Blaise and Pansy appear at the gates and suddenly the Manor doesn't feel like a dark and lonely place. It feels like it could actually be home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Draco Malfoy &amp; Pansy Parkinson &amp; Blaise Zabini</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Small Harry Potter Things [42]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/719196</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Finding Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When the war is over, when Draco has been pardoned along with his parents, when they are released from auror custody, they go home. Home—to the manor, which imprisoned them far more often than it offered safety.</p><p>Draco’s parents both know what is coming for them. The Ministry has imposed heavy fines, laid down strict regulations, but the Malfoys are rich and their business comes from overseas into the United Kingdoms—not the other way around. They’ve been in trouble before, the family as whole, not necessarily his parents. The Malfoys know how to weather a storm or two, the Blacks even more so. And so Draco’s parents pack and prepare to go overseas. Back to France, to their roots, to where they can leave happy lives, peaceful ones. Lives where they are not cursed or attacked simply for existing.</p><p>But Draco is not like his parents. France does not call his name. He had a home in Malfoy Manor, once upon a time. And he wants to have one again. He wants the Manor to be a place of good memories, not bad ones.</p><p>He wants to smile and stop living in fear, and maybe changing the manor’s appearance will replace those awful memories of torture and fear and screaming. Maybe if he fixes things and improves them, everything will be alright.</p><p>So his parents go overseas and Draco rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. It’s day two of this when the wards alert him about people waiting by the gates. Which is strange. Draco shouldn’t have any guests. The only people the wards are tied to are him and his parents and Draco doesn’t know who would want to come visit him.</p><p>Unless it’s the Ministry coming after him for more reparations, but surely they’d send an owl? But the Ministry is incompetent, especially whilst trying to overcome the damage caused by Death Eaters controlling it.</p><p>Draco heads down to the metal gates that loom, closed to the public. His parents closed the manor when Voldemort died and they left Hogwarts, and Draco’s not planning to open them anytime soon. He doesn’t want guests and won’t invite them.</p><p>But—there, at the gates. Two figures. One is tall and lean, dark skin, clad in a pristine white suit that somehow has not a bit of dust on it. The other person is wearing a dress that stops a few inches above her knees; it’s a royal blue dress, white flowers decorating it. Beside them both, there’s two trunks. Draco hurries forward, he knows these people, and he’s not expecting guests and doesn’t want them but these aren’t guests—these are his friends.</p><p>“Draco, darling,” Pansy drawls, “do let us in, won’t you?”</p><p>Lifting his wand, Draco opens the gates. Before they’ve even opened fully, the pair rush in, trunks hovering behind them.</p><p>Arms snag around him, and Draco closes his eyes, surrounded by his best friends and feeling safe. “Hey,” he says, the word soft and choked and he can’t help it. It’s been far too long. Pansy had remained in Hogwarts at the height of the war, some of her family joining the Death Eaters while she had escaped participating in the war properly. Blaise, on the other hand, had seemed to vanish from Hogwarts and the world as a whole—along with a good number of Slytherins that Draco personally knows had been afraid of being forced to join the Death Eaters.</p><p>“It’s good to see you again,” Blaise says, before stepping back. He smiles, and it looks easy, but there’s a tightness to his eyes that hadn’t been there the last time Draco had seen him. “I hope you don’t mind us appearing out of the blue.”</p><p>“No,” Draco says, shaking his head. “I don’t mind. It’s good—I’m glad you’ve come.”</p><p>“Good,” Pansy says, stepping forward and towards the manor. “Because I’ve packed to be here for a good few months.”</p><p>Bemused, Draco quickens his pace to walk beside her. Blaise walks on his right, legs long enough to look like he’s walking slowly, lazily; it’s a skill that Blaise had perfected in Hogwarts and somehow it makes him look uncaring and graceful. Draco’s only slightly jealous.</p><p>“Is there a reason why?” Draco asks, as they reach the entranceway of the manor.</p><p>“Well,” Pansy says, “Blaise had lunch with your parents over in France for business purposes.” Draco glances at Blaise, surprised, and Blaise ducks his head a little. He hadn’t been aware his schoolmate had taken over the family business properly. “And <em>I</em>,” Pansy continues, “had heard rumour of Draco Malfoy becoming a recluse and locking up the manor. And we couldn’t have that, could we Blaise?”</p><p>“Indeed. So we figured we should come and stay with you for a little bit. It has, after all, been a long time.”</p><p>“I’m not a recluse,” Draco complains. “I just want the public out and to give the manor a makeover. It’s nothing major. You didn’t have to come check on me.”</p><p>“Who said we’re checking on you?” Pansy says. “Maybe I wanted out of the house and somewhere with free rent.” Draco rolls his eyes. They all know Pansy could easily afford to buy a mansion, let alone pay rent. She’s clearly here just to check up on him.</p><p>Blaise, on the other hand, simply pets Draco’s shoulder lightly. “We’re your friends,” he says somewhat seriously. “And with the ability to finally see you, we jumped at the opportunity. It’s our duty to make sure you’re not alone either.”</p><p>There are many things they’re not saying and Draco can hear them echoing in his mind. He knows they must be thinking that the manor is awfully big and he must get lonely, and they’re not exactly wrong. But this had been his choice.</p><p>Except, the manor already feels better with his friends with him. Pausing in the main hall, Pansy surveys it with her hands on her hips. Draco forcefully looks away from the bloodstains on the ground. The hall feels cold, feels dark, impersonal, and he can so easily remember Voldemort and his various Death Eaters parading through her, frequently with their prisoners.</p><p>“I think you should go for a different colour scheme,” Pansy says. “Maybe go for an entire different style actually. I heard that the Greengrass family got their main house remodelled recently—through some company which is in rather bad taste, but their recent parties have shown how spectacular the new manor is, I must admit.”</p><p>Draco hums and consider it. As far as he can remember, the manor’s never changed—but it must have, because it’s in the Pureblood styles that make it look stylish but not too old-fashioned. “I have to redo some of the warding,” he says. And he’d planned to find some professionals to help him do it, but now he turns his gaze to Blaise who’s dealt with the warding for his various houses in multiple countries to keep people safe.</p><p>“I can help with that,” Blaise says, nodding. “Or I can at least recommend some people you can trust to get it done. Style-wise, Pansy’s probably the better option. Fashion clothing I can do, but a house isn’t quite something I know so well. Especially the styling over here.”</p><p>“You mean to say you know styling over in Italy?” Pansy asks teasingly, a grin on her face.</p><p>“I mightn’t have seen you for like a year, but I highly doubt that. I roomed with you, remember. You lived in a <em>mess</em>.”</p><p>“He still does,” Pansy says over the top of Blaise’s spluttering and Draco grins. With his friends here, it feels like a weight has been stolen from his shoulders. Even if the manor is still cold and his parents are overseas and the memories of the Death Eaters and Voldemort still linger—it feels better now. It actually feels like he’s <em>home</em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Apparently I have thoughts about Malfoy Manor and all the awful things that took place there and how Draco would absolutely not be dealing well with them.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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